


I'll Walk Through Hell With You

by LadyShadowphyre



Series: The King's Seraph Consort [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Boy King Sam Winchester, Castiel just wants to be loved, Discussions of Public Consummation, Enochian-Speaking Sam Winchester, Explicit Consent for Corrective Brainwashing, Frank Discussions of Brainwashing, Generic Medieval European Fantasy AU, King Sam Winchester, M/M, Mentions of Lilith, Mentions of Mary Winchester - Freeform, Mentions of Ruby - Freeform, Mentions of Samuel and Deanna Campbell, Michael is a paranoid king, Prince Castiel (Supernatural), Royalty AU, brief discussions of sex, mentions of Azazel - Freeform, mentions of Gabriel - Freeform, mentions of John Winchester - Freeform, mentions of Michael - Freeform, mentions of Samandriel, pre-wedding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 10:18:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18715039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyShadowphyre/pseuds/LadyShadowphyre
Summary: Five months spent in Ziemia, first as a seeker of asylum while the negotiations took place and then as King Samuel's official betrothed and intended Consort, had given Prince Castiel a true appreciation for the goodness of this man his older brother, King Michael of Ter'd'Ange, was convinced could only be bloodthirsty and ruthlessly evil. With less than a month away from their wedding day, Sam has an early wedding present courtesy of Castiel's favorite brother Prince Gabriel that cements Castiel's faith in him completely.





	I'll Walk Through Hell With You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Zetal (Rodinia)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/gifts).



> Sequel to [Even If We Can't Find Heaven](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12891447).
> 
>  **Tumblr's @writing-prompts :** "You have to, it's tradition!" "Tradition is just peer pressure from dead people."  
>  **Heaven & Hell Bingo square:** Arranged Marriage  
>  **Sam Winchester Bingo square:** Royal!Sam  
>  **Good Things Happen Bingo square:** Clear Consent  
>  **Supernatural Fluff Bingo square:** Accidentally Revealed Feelings

**W** HEN KING JOHN of the House of Winchester took the throne of Ziemia, ascending in place of his father, King Henry, he had married for love. That wasn't the story he pitched to the Council, of course, because as King he had a responsibility to his people and that extended even to such things as his marriage. The fact that Queen Mary was of the House of Campbell and descended from the late King of Tartarus was more a point of contention than favor. When Queen Lilith had taken the throne upon her Grandfather's death, she had hunted down and eradicated any of her relatives who might have opposed her, including Duke Samuel, his wife Deanna, and their daughter. John was young to hold the throne, but already battle-hardened as many princes were in those days, and he was wary of crossing Tartarus when their treaties were already so fragile. When Queen Lilith sent her brother, Prince Zael, as emissary to demand the return of the fugitive traitors, John had proposed a counter: if Lilith would give up her bloody vendetta against her uncle, he would marry the Campbell Princess as a sign of the good will between their two nations. The distaff branch of the Campbell line would end and control of the Tartaran throne would remain solely in Lilith's hands. John would have a Queen who could help him to rule Ziemia and would give him heirs of his blood.

That Queen Lilith accepted the offer should have been the first warning sign. Mary had voiced her doubts, but John had soothed her worries. Despite his promises of vigilance for treachery, John himself had been too relieved to have found a solution that would maintain peace and not have the blood of the Duke, Duchess and Princess on his hands, which it would have been had he sent them back to Tartarus. For a while, everything seemed peaceful. Then Mary's mother died from what appeared to be a stroke. Mary, pregnant with her first child, determined to name the baby in her honor whatever the child's sex was at birth and John agreed to his Queen's plan for honoring his late mother-in-law. The Tartaran ambassador had looked into the infant Prince Dean's eyes at his Christening and pronounced him "a fine heir for Ziemia", and that had been that.

Then Duke Samuel died of a heart attack. Despite his more advanced age, the man had been fit as a fiddle, strong and steady. The funeral was held privately, John standing grim and silent beside a lividly pale Mary, one hand clutching the hand of three-year-old Prince Dean, the other hand pressed over her not-yet-swollen belly. When the second prince was born, there was no question about naming him Samuel after his grandfather. Mary had wanted to forbid Tartarus an invitation to the Christening, but John knew there was no way to do so without it being a grave and potentially deadly insult, no matter what they both suspected about the deaths of Mary's parents.

And so Tartarus was invited, and Queen Lilith's brother had come in her stead. When Prince Zael had come to look upon the newborn prince, he had been silent for a long moment before suggesting that the young prince would make a fine consort to Lilith's younger sister, the twelve-year-old Princess Ruby. That had been the last straw for Queen Mary, who had retorted in rage that Samuel would be married into Lilith's clutches over her dead body. When she was killed six months later, it was no accident or illness that caused her stomach to sprout a flame-tipped arrow that set her on fire inside the safety of the castle. John banished Prince Zael with a rain of arrows on his heels and there had been war between Tartarus and Ziemia ever since until King John's death, Prince Dean's abduction, and King Samuel's ascension first to the throne of Ziemia and then to the throne of Tartarus quite literally over Lilith's dead body.

Some of this had been known to Prince Castiel when he had been given his initial briefing in Ter'd'Ange. The rest, he had learned from King Samuel and Prince Dean in confidence when he had privately requested and been granted asylum at the connivance of his older brother, Gabriel. Gabriel's suggestion of arranging a treaty marriage between King Samuel and Prince Castiel as the excuse for why he was remaining in Ziemia instead of going home to Ter'd'Ange with only the rewritten treaties between Ziemia and Tartarus and Ter'd'Ange in hand had been better received than the late Queen Lilith's demands of a similar arrangement for Princess Ruby, but it also added its own complications. Castiel may have been a Prince, but he was also one of King Michael's Seraphim, the elite royal guard of Ter'd'Ange who functioned more as spymasters and assassins for the King than as true guards. Although Gabriel had promised to work on something that would keep everyone safe from King Michael attempting a similar sort of treachery as what had befallen King John and Queen Mary at Lilith's command, there was still some hand-wringing over King Samuel's safety alone with the Prince he was to marry from the few who knew about it.

Of course, there was also plenty of hand-wringing from those who didn't over the entire issue of arranging and coordinating a royal wedding between a King of two nations and the Prince of a third. Some things were frivolous, like which flowers were to be used in the decorations. Others were more political, such as which banners would be hung in the chapel and which nations colors the grooms' wedding attire would be made in.

And then there were things like this.

"We are  _ not _ consummating the marriage in public!" King Samuel snapped, slamming his hand down upon the desk and glaring at the advisor who had dared bring up the practice. "There's going to be enough public scrutiny of both me and Castiel as it is with this three ring circus of a wedding, and now you're suggesting we turn our wedding night into the side show act?!"

"You have to," Lord Davies exclaimed, practically pleading, "it's tradition!"

"Tradition is nothing more than peer pressure from dead people," Sam retorted, narrowing his eyes. "I'm not doing it!  _ We're _ not doing it!" He indicated Castiel with a hand gesture, to which Castiel raised both eyebrows. It wasn't as if he had any opinion on the subject himself, given the overall lack of bodily autonomy he had been raised with, but he understood that this was a line too far for Sam and was more inclined to support his future husband over this stuff-shirted advisor.

"It's a deeply important tradition to ensure the correct consummation and legitimizing of the union and any heirs produced!" Lord Davies began reproachful tones. "One would think you would be a little more conscientious of propriety and the necessity of asserting a secure claim to the throne--"

"Dean abdicated the throne of Ziemia to me publically," Sam interrupted Lord Davies with narrowed eyes and gritted teeth, drawing himself up to his full and impressive height. "You were even there when he repeated his abdication in favor of my ascension to the Ziemian Royal Court, and I killed the Queen of Tartarus, her Knights,  _ and _ the Princess died fighting by my side to secure my safe passage to rescue Dean from her reigning sister. My thrones - both of them, gods help me - are quite secure, and since my upcoming marriage is to  _ Prince _ Castiel of Ter'd'Ange, unless he's got something very personal to tell me, we're not going to be producing any heirs between us without the use of a surrogate, so the public spectacle you're trying to get me to agree to is completely unnecessary!"

"Your Majesty--"

"Unless your motivations for insisting on it are a great deal more salacious then you would have me believe," Sam added with a raised eyebrow and such a suspicious tone that had Lord Davies spluttering in embarrassed indignation.

Castiel didn't for a minute believe that Sam suspected Lord Davies of really having such motivations - the man was far too easily flustered - though he wouldn't put it past certain other members of the Council. In point of fact, he could see at least one very good reason to have the consummation be public, and another equally good reason to keep absolutely everyone but Sam and himself out of the bedroom when the time came. He was not, however, going to voice either of those reasons in front of Lord Davies, and it was abundantly obvious to Castiel that Sam would not be willing to budge on this anytime soon.

He cleared his throat pointedly.

"Your Majesty, Lord Davies," he began with a deferential tone that had Lord Davies blinking at him and Sam smothering a laugh. "Do pardon the interruption. You have both made very credible points. Lord Davies, while your citing of tradition is perfectly valid in most cases, his Majesty is correct about the capabilities of my anatomy or lack thereof. I cannot bear him any children." Which had been one of the points Gabriel had raised as being in favor of Sam marrying Castiel in the first place as a potential means of keeping King Michael at a respectful distance. Castiel turned to Sam, then, and added, "Your Majesty, if you will allow me, I would remind you that Lord Davies is not entirely wrong about the importance of  _ witnesses _ to the legitimacy of our union."

The emphasis on the word "witnesses" was subtle, and Castiel took care to push an invisible strand of hair back behind his left ear where the black ink of the Mark of the Seraphim was only just barely hidden beneath the similarly colored curls around his ears. Lord Davies frowned in puzzlement, but the tightening of Sam's eyes and mouth showed he took Castiel's meaning all too clearly and did not like the reminder.

"You suggest we find a compromise," Sam said in measured tones, not giving verbal acknowledgement to Castiel's reminder.

"In part, Your Majesty," Castiel allowed. "I would also suggest a break to allow all parties to clear their heads and get their bearings back about themselves so as to return to the discussion later with cooler tempers and clearer strategies."

Sam actually looked visibly relieved by the suggestion of a break, telling Castiel that he had been right to speak up. Lord Davies hemmed and hawed, but he was gently shuffled out of the King's office to consult with the other Council members about the possibility of paring down the traditional retinue once Sam and Castiel (who had struggled to show no surprise at being included) had a number and list acceptable to both of them.

The door shut, and the golden circlet Sam was wearing came off to clatter onto the desk with an accompanying gusty sigh that was followed with a weary, "I really could do without anyone but you there to see me fumbling around like a virgin on our wedding night."

"There will be mutual fumbling, I assure you," Castiel told him with a wry smirk. "My knowledge of more carnal subjects is extensive, but entirely theoretical, so you need not fear looking less experienced than your husband."

"Husband," Sam repeated the word testingly, his lips curving into a small but pleased smile that made Castiel's stomach flutter agreeably. He only had a moment to enjoy it before the expression shifted to one of embarrassment. "I, uh, was going to try and find a way to bring up the subject of preferences and positions before the actual wedding night, but if you haven't explored that yet...."

"Given that you are the King, I would imagine that our consummation should involve you penetrating me and spilling your seed inside my body," Castiel deadpanned, watching with amusement as Sam's face went bright red. More softly, he added, "I would imagine that we could experiment together with regards to... any number of factors involved in sexual intimacy, but for our wedding night it must be you above me as I surrender myself to you."

"Especially if Lord Davies and whoever on the Council put him up to this gets their way," Sam sighed and sank down into his desk chair. Castiel watched as he started to lean forward, caught sight of the circlet on the desk, and then leaned back in his chair away from desk and circlet and everything they symbolized, reaching up to rub his eyes with one hand before looking up at Castiel again. "You're really okay with them watching?"

"I wouldn't say that, exactly," Castiel temporized. Honestly, he thought he might prefer complete privacy for their wedding night as well, but he was all too conscious of the compromised nature of his own mind. "Aside from any personal discomfort you or I might have at the prospect, the consummation of our marriage will be the first time when either of us will be unarmed and vulnerable." Both of their wedding garments included ceremonial dress swords, and a part of the ceremony had been rewritten for them to cross swords and kiss above the crossed blades as a symbol that they would never raise a blade to the other in anger. "As such, it would be an ideal time for an enemy agent to strike... or to activate me."

"And an enemy agent attacking would definitely break the mood even if we weren't naked and a theoretically defenseless target," Sam's hand came up to rub his eyes again, then slid around to rub the back of his neck. "There's, uh, something else I was trying to figure out how to bring up to you. Your brother, Gabriel, sent a packet with a courier... he called himself Alfie?"

Castiel blinked. "Alfie is the name my cousin Samandriel uses for moving with a low profile between cities and across borders so as to draw less official attention. We were close when we were younger, though my induction into the Seraphim curtailed much of our interactions, but he is clever and loyal to those he respects. If Gabriel wanted a secure courier to bring something he could not carry personally, Samandriel would be an excellent choice."

"So no chance that the message was intercepted or tampered with, then?"

"None. Samandriel could hold his own against me in sparring and I cannot imagine he would let his skills lapse."

"Good. That... that's good...."

Castiel waited, but Sam was staring at the desk with a pensive expression. It was likely that, despite having broached the topic of there being something else to discuss, he was still struggling to decide how to bring up what he believed to be a sensitive subject. Well, it wasn't as if Castiel was not already getting plenty of experience in the duties of a Consort to his King. Running back over what they had both said, he ventured, "Does the message from Gabriel pertain to my conditioning and the dangers of allowing one of Michael's agents near enough to activate me on his orders?"

Sam started up and stared, then huffed a sound that might have been a laugh if it had held even a drop of humor. "I really don't understand how you can be so matter of fact about what they did to you," he said, more to himself than to Castiel, but Castiel chose to answer anyway.

"I can because incapacitating emotional responses were part of what was trained out of me and to become upset would serve no practical purpose. It was done, and it is what it is," Castiel shrugged. "If you believe it would help, I could attempt to act distraught over my situation, but that seems a tiresome waste of time that would be better spent... drafting wedding invitations to those members of my family I wish to invite to our wedding in addition to those whom we are obligated to invite out of propriety."

"I thought you did that already," Sam blinked.

Castiel gave him a dry look. "I have. It was an example. My point remains that, without recourse or method to change the fact that I am an unwilling triggerable explosive device, I would rather be practical than emotional."

"What if you could?"

Castiel stared.

Sam's face flushed. "What if you could change it?"

"Sam...?"

"The message. From Gabriel," Sam glanced down at his desk to the drawer Castiel knew he kept locked, then back up. "He sent me as much information as he could gather on your conditioning, including key words and trigger phrases already implanted... and the code phrase to rewrite it."

If he had not known that such a thing was physically and structurally impossible, Castiel would have thought that the ground had somehow crumbled beneath his feet to leave him lurching into freefall above a yawning chasm of imminent destruction. Sam had the codes. Gabriel had somehow gotten the codes and given them to Sam. Sam could undo the work Naomi and Thaddeus had put into making him Michael's perfect Seraphim soldier, could change his orders and directive... Sam could  _ fix _ him!

"I went over everything he sent several times," Sam's voice filtered through the cotton wool that threatened to smother him. "I have a rough draft for removing the old triggers and, for lack of a better term, resetting your loyalties to be to yourself and whoever you choose to trust with your allegiances, but I wanted to have you look it over for any corrections you want to make before--"

"Yes," Castiel croaked, the world swimming around him until abruptly snapping into focus on Sam's face. "Please, yes, Sam, I don't need to see the draft, just do it!"

Sam stuttered to a stop, his mouth opening and closing in a way that had no business being so attractive before he finally managed a strained, "Are you sure? You need to be sure, Castiel, I don't... I mean, this is--"

"I have been conditioned to trust and obey Gabriel implicitly, and he obviously trusts you to be good to me and not abuse me the way others would, which is as sure I can be as I am," Castiel interrupted. "Please, Sam. Fix me so I can be sure about everything from now on."

"Okay," Sam murmured, his voice nearly a whisper, and swallowed. "Okay, Castiel... Uh, do you need to be sitting, or...?"

"I can remain standing. My balance will be unaffected."

"Okay," Sam repeated. He gave the room a distracted visual sweep, then stood up from the desk. The drawer was unlocked with a key Castiel deliberately did not look to see from where it had come, and a single sheet of paper was lifted out before the drawer was closed and locked again. Sam came around the desk to stand in front of Castiel, less than an arm-length of space between them. "You sure you don't want to look this over first?"

"Don't ask stupid questions," Castiel choked out around the constriction in his throat, knowing intellectually that Sam was trying to be considerate of him and not actually tormenting him by dangling this in front of him to make him beg. "Do it."

"Right," Sam huffed softly and lifted his left hand, pressing his first two fingers to touch the center of Castiel's forehead between his eyebrows. Castiel's eyes automatically tried to focus on the fingers before snapping back to focus on the eyes of his handler. "O'el eso'enef vo'ora'esye ye'oho i'ade ba'a'elta elo'enes'h..."

The Seraph stood at attention as Castiel slipped away.

He roused an indeterminable time later to the feeling of fingers stroking through his hair, a tender and intimate gesture that was unfamiliar in the wake of these moments of disengaged awareness, and yet so very familiar in the recent weeks since becoming closer to Ziemia's King... his fiancé... Castiel's eyes drifted open as his head tilted up, leaning into the touch just a little as he looked up into the eyes his words so frequently failed to describe. "Hello."

"Hello?" Sam asked, eyebrows going up and lips twitching. "That's what you want to say?"

"It's as good a greeting as any," Castiel pointed out, then blinked. That was more flippant than he usually was allowed to be to whoever greeted him upon coming out. "Am I... still myself?"

"You tell me," Sam said with a shrug that didn't quite hide the cautious look about his eyes. "What's your opinion of your brother Michael?"

"He's a paranoid stuffed-shirted tyrant with a god complex," Castiel said without thinking. When he registered what he had just said, his jaw dropped. "That... that was true. That's actually what I think, but... but I've never been allowed to say it!"

"So far so good," Sam grinned. "How about Gabriel?"

"Smarter than he lets people think he is, and while he enjoys his cover as a licentious womanizer a little too much he's not nearly so careless with hearts as he would let others believe," Castiel rattled off with a growing smile.

"And Naomi?"

"Cold-hearted bitch!"

Sam laughed, and Castiel laughed with him. It felt so good to finally be able to  _ say _ everything he had barely been allowed to  _ think _ in the past! He almost flung his arms around Sam and kissed him, only just barely holding himself back when Sam's expression turned serious.

"Okay, Gabriel's message said this would be the tricky part," he said. "What do you think of Dean?"

"Also smarter than he lets people think and very independently minded, too strong of will to break under even Naomi's creative efforts and Michael's an idiot to think he could make Dean into a puppet," Castiel said in measured tones. "He would be a fantastic general, maybe even a decent king, but he doesn't want to be king because he worries the power would go to his head."

"Definitely not something you've said before," Sam murmured, looking a little shaken despite having clearly braced himself to hear things he hadn't known before. He hesitated, then asked slowly, guardedly, "And what do you think of me?"

"You're the most beautiful person I have ever met, inside and out, and I want to crow to the rooftops that I get to be the one to marry you."

Sam's jaw dropped.

Castiel blushed.

_ Sam _ blushed.

Castiel swallowed. "I... you didn't rewrite me to say that."

"No, uh... no, I didn't," Sam blinked.

"Oh," Castiel mumbled, glancing down and then back up. "Sam? Am I allowed to love you yet?"

"I sure hope so," his king and future husband said fervently, "because I'm pretty sure I love you, too."

"I'm going to kiss you now," Castiel told him, raising his arms to wrap around Sam's neck and pull their bodies flush against each other.

And he did.

**=End=**

**Author's Note:**

> For those of you who are curious, the code phrase is Enochian from the First Call: OL SONF VORSG GOHO IAD BALT LONSH = "I reign over you saith the Lord of Justice in power exhalted..."
> 
> You can find the call and the translation [here](https://www.sinleb.com/enochian/index.php).


End file.
